By: IOL

On Monday morning the Minister of Electricity and Energy, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, delivered his usually intense weekly energy action plan update. The key focus was on the planned additional renewable energy bid windows to be introduced. So far there are already nine renewable energy (RE) bid windows that have been procured and the plan is to build more renewable energy into the grid. Whether these bid windows have successfully delivered energy to the grid is another discussion.

Under the leadership of Tshifhiwa Bernard Magoro the Independent Power Producer’s Bid Office has been focusing on procuring dispatchable renewable energy solutions. Dispatchable energy is the correct strategy to adopt and a way to go in onboarding renewables onto the South African grid.

However, there is no need to build more renewable energy power projects that will end up sitting like white elephants powering nothing into the grid. Eskom is currently paying for renewable energy that does not generate any income into Eskom revenue coffers. The program has turned into a state subsidy scheme that serves no purpose except to raise costs and artificially balloon the price of electricity.

I say this in the light of a massive chunk of renewable energy projects that are currently stranded without grid access and a functioning transmission network. These projects cannot serve any commercial need because they have been built away from industry and out in the desert in the Northern Cape.